I had been waiting for this day. I will no longer have to sit in Anna's hospital room and listen to the sound of other babies' cries while I also listen to the sound of the ventilator pumping oxygen into her lungs. She can do it on her own now.
Anna's cry is soft and beautiful. I know it seems strange, but I want to hear her cry. It is the sweetest sound.
Anna decided that she was ready to come off of the ventilator. She pulled the tube out on her own (again). She did so well without the tube that the doctors and nurses felt that she was ready to move to a si-pap (oxygen mask). She was on the si-pap for only two days before moving to the next lower level of oxygen support called a cannula (tube with prongs inserted into the nostrils).
It gets better each day....
Today, Saturday, April 16, 2011, I fed Anna with a bottle for the first time. During rounding, the Attending Physician looked at Anna and said, "Let's try nippling her today". Nurse Michelle and I looked at each other and smiled. This was a huge step!
Anna drank from the bottle as if she had been drinking from it since she was born. I had to watch her carefully to make sure that she remembered to breathe while eating. She definitely enjoyed her first bottle feeding and so did her Mommy.
We can only feed Anna from a bottle once a day for now. As long as her food digests properly, her bottle feedings will continue and increase in volume. When she is not being fed from a bottle, she drinks her milk from a feeding tube that is inserted into her mouth and that goes into her stomach.
There were other milestones today. Kara and Shawn held their baby sister for the first time. Anna wore her new pink headband for the occasion. Anna smiled the entire time Kara held her. Kara is such a natural with babies and children. When Shawn held Anna, I asked him, "How do you like your baby sister?" Shawn looked up at me and said, "I love her". Kara and Shawn are such great kids and I am so very proud of them. Anna is going to have the best big brother and big sister anyone could ever have.
Anna is also going to have the best Daddy. I watched JR hold Anna for a little while today and thought, He finally has the little baby girl he always wanted.
Kara and Shawn are not JR's biological children, but you would never know it. JR has been a dad to Kara since she was 3 yrs old and to Shawn since he was 10 months old. JR has been Kara and Shawn's Daddy for 9 years now.
When JR and I started to talk about having more children, I was very reluctant. Kara and Shawn were getting older and I was comfortable with the life that we had. JR and I struggled over this for five years. I am so glad that we decided to move forward with the adoption process. Anna is the perfect addition to our family.
Adoption is when a child grew in its mommy's heart instead of her tummy ~ Author Unknown
2 comments:
Congratulations, Anna and family! I love all the new pics! She's really starting to look like a big healthy baby in these pictures, not so tiny and fragile.
God bless you all! Congrats!
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